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In reply to the discussion: I'm realizing now just how badly Norman Lear's TV shows sucked during the 70's. [View all]6chars
(3,967 posts)Played totally for laughs to the 70s audience (based on where the laughtrack appears), not as a depiction of poor treatment of women, just at the expense of women. The premise of that episode is that Hawkeye and Trapper John have helped a Korean boy get into a U.S. school. Half the shenanigans revolve around keeping Frank Burns out of the way. The other half revolves around raising money for the boy's airfare by raffling off a weekend tryst with one of the nurses. First they decide who, then Hawkeye tricks her (Nurse "Dish" - ha ha) into being the prize, then once she is in, convinces her to go along with it, which she does because Hawkeye is so persistent and she really likes it when he keeps visiting her while she tries to shower. Then they hold a party where all the guys on the base bid on her and the joke is that it is rigged so that Father Mulcahey wins the weekend. Through it all there is no implied critique at all of Hawkeye other than from the prudish Margaret Houlihan and Frank. This debuted at the same time as Maude, well into the Mary Tyler Moore era. My young woman I watched it with was just disgusted, and I felt slimy for watching it.